Ascot goes on the offensive as sales dip

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Course stays upbeat despite estimating a fall of more than 40,000 in the five-day attendance at the royal meeting next month

It was wine-tasting that helped boost the crowd at Ascot on Saturday. Later this summer, it will be beer, food and music. But even as the most stately of racecourses has recognised the need for lateral marketing, so it has acknowledged that nothing - not even the one racing event inseparable from the social season - can resist this recession.

By its own honest estimate, Ascot will suffer a drop of more than 40,000 in the five-day attendance at the royal meeting next month. “Hospitality is down 15 per cent and ticket sales between 10 and 15 per cent,” Nick Smith, the